The Story So Far...
Captain Murphy leads the crew of underwater research lab SeaLab, which is staffed by the most twisted scientists ever to hold a test tube. Originally, each episode of the [adult swim] series was cobbled out of redubbed and reanimated shows from the original "Sealab 2020" series, but by this third season, the show was using the original series simply as inspiration for a whole new hilarious mythology. Warner Brothers released the first season of "Sealab 2021" in July of 2004, followed by Season Two in March of 2005. The DVDTalk reviews can be read here: Season One | Season Two.

The Show
The death of Harry Goz, the voice of Captain Murphy, was a real problem for "SeaLab 2021," as his character's misfiring brain really set the tone of the series, and often delivered the biggest laughs. Whether it was his credit-card spending spree, his love of golf or his addiction to Bebop Cola, many an episode either centered on him, or was enhanced by his appearances.

Season Three has a couple of great Murphy moments, including "I, Robot, Really," which sees his brain put into a robot with "D-Cups of Justice" and yet another Murphy-brand scheme in "Tourist Season," which is just ridiculous. Sadly, there are some disappointments, like the "Der Dieb" clone "Red Dawn," which replaces the original's "martian" law with communism, though is otherwise very similar. But the biggest disappointment has to be his replacement: football coach/gym teacher Tornado Shanks, voiced by Goz's son Michael.

Shanks doesn't have any of the subtle insanity of Murphy, nor does he deliver the nonsensical comedy the way the captain did. Instead, he's blunt and in-your-face, playing the part of a football coach to a T. That simply doesn't work on "SeaLab 2021", where the characters never fit into their assigned roles. Thinking about it, it's almost impossible that they could have found a leader to replace Murphy well, as he was the rare perfect mix of character and voice.

Though this run of the series features some twisted concepts like radioactive rock stars and robot alligators, on a whole, this is possibly the most traditional of the three seasons so far, without ridiculously out-there episodes like "Waking Quinn" or "Tinfins." For the most part, each 11-minute episode has something resembling a real plot and actual progression from the beginning to the end. Only "Let 'Em Eat Corn," which sees SeaLab divided by politics and threatened by nuclear war, feels like one of the old scattershot episodes.

Among the best episodes in this collection are "Meet Beck Bristow," in which a movie star joins the crew to research a part, "ASHDTV," a mix of TV parody and "SeaLab" episode, and possibly the best one, "Neptunati," which is simply fantastic, hitting on almost every one of the episode's rapid-fire jokes, right to the very end. There's nothing quite like seeing Stormy's massive rack sway to make you think "comedy."

The DVDs
The two DVDs that make up Season Three of "SeaLab 2021" are housed in yet another creatively-packaged, slipcased three-panel digipak, like the previous two sets. This time, the case is designed to mimic Soviet-era propaganda, with a very stark, duotone look, a style inspired by the episode "Red Dawn." The static anamorphic main menus are done in a similar style, with options to play the episodes all together, select individual ones and adjust the subtitles, which are available in English, French and Spanish, along with English closed captioning. Disc One has nine episodes, while the second platter holds four more.

The Quality
As the show depends less and less on footage from the original series, the episodes look better and better. The full-frame footage is mostly clean and clear, though he backgrounds have some noise to them. Most of the hard edges are smooth, though the thinner lines have a bit of pixilation, and some bits of old animation look blurry.

The audio, presented in Dolby Digital 2.0, is as clear and smooth as any television mix, which is hugely important for a show that gets so much mileage from sound effects. Considering how many visual gags their are in each episodes, its impressive what a big part of the series the sound plays.

The Extras
There's not one for every episodes, like in Season Two, but audio commentaries are included for four episodes, "Tourist Season," "Red Dawn," "Frozen Dinner" and "Tornado Shanks." Similar in tone to the tracks on the previous set, you'll learn absolutely nothing about the series here, but you will find extended jokes in the vein of the show's sense of humor. These aren't the kinds of tracks you'll listen to more than once, or even all the way through, though the over-the-top negativity of blogger Karl Olson on "Tornado Shanks" and the detours taken during a "cast member"'s track on "Frozen Dinner" are worth listening to.

"The Gert Pilot" is the original pitch for the show. The show's creators didn't have the resources they created later episodes with, so this is more like "What's Up, Tigerlily?" than "SeaLab 2021." This is a standard "SeaLab 2020" episode, overdubbed with some very weak attempts at comedy. There are some concepts that carried over to the series, like Dolphin Boy, but overall, this is not the "SeaLab" fans know and love.

A pair of episodes that were never completed, "Quinnmas" and "Dearly Beloved," are included in their rough cuts, with preliminary animation and full voice recordings. "Dearly Beloved" is in a more final version, as it eventually became the episode "Dearly Beloved Seed," but both are enjoyable in their own way, even if they aren't finished.

Kitty FunFun is a 9:30 collection of quick-hit commercials for SeaLab, done with an old Cartoon Network puppet named Kitty FunFun and a bunch of "housingly-challenged" people from Atlanta. The ethics of pairing up obviously-disturbed homeless people with a sock puppet for the purposes of promoting a cartoon are definitely questionable, as is the humor quotient of the results, but they need to be seen anyway.

The most interesting extra, in your humble reviewer's opinion, is "Stormy Waters, Pundit." New animation is done for monologues by journalist Ellis Henican, Stormy's voice, on topics like the rise of the Red States, the state of the Democratic Party and other political topics. It's not wacky [adult swim] material, but it's very interesting to listen to, especially as these ideas pour forth from the mouth of an idiot like Stormy. Conservatives probably won't enjoy it, at least those who can't handle opinions opposite their own, but these are very well thought-out and intelligent views. In other words, an extra that has no place on these DVDs.

The Bottom Line
The loss of Captain Murphy was guaranteed to hurt, as the series took its cues from SeaLab's mental midget, and Tornado Shanks was a weak replacement for him, despite the real-life familial connection. This season wasn't as crazy as the previous one, without the mindbenders that were simultaneously annoying and amazing. The bonus material is of the same quality as previous releases, though a decent commentary remains missing. There's still a season's worth of episodes waiting to be released, but this is the last of Captain Murphy's adventures, which makes it the last of the great "SeaLab 2021" episodes. This is a recommended pick-up for the series' fans, but a rental for the curious.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.